Q&A: Can County Social Workers Still take over a senior’s care if the seniors are legally of sound mind?

Question by Laura L: Can County Social Workers Still take over a senior’s care if the seniors are legally of sound mind?
This is a quandry, some people think no, but what if the person’s way of life is a problem for safety, etc and they are elderly? Maybe there’s a website on social worker’s and seniors?

Best answer:

Answer by MONo they certainly cannot. If someone is of sound mind and knows what they are doing they shd be left alone.

3 thoughts on “Q&A: Can County Social Workers Still take over a senior’s care if the seniors are legally of sound mind?”

There are 2 legitimate causes to allow someone to “take over care” and those are A) Mental Incompetence and B) Physical Disability.

If you can’t physically care for yourself, no matter how mentally healthy you are, the state/county can intervene. They can’t force treatments upon you, such as they can’t force you to take medications or even have life saving surgeries if you do not consent, but they are obligated to maintain your physical well being at a basic level.

It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about MS or super morbid obesity or hoarding… If you’re not physically able to care for yourself, the authorities can step in and take care of you regardless.

Depends on who is determining the seniors state of mind. We are all legally of sound mind until we are proven to be unsound. The is no document that states we are of sound mind, only one that claims we aren’t. Usually once that is determined in an elderly person, someone is chosen the be a legal guardian, usually the closest living relation, hopefully an older child.

The only way a social worker could do anything is if the elderly person lives in a fashion which is socially believed to be of danger to that person or others or if there is some law broken. A good example are some elderly people who hoard cats, have a houseful of cats. The person may seem mentally fine, but the living conditions may be deplorable, cause the elderly person has fail to keep the house clean.

In the U.S., seniors have the right to live free, make their own choices in life and not be discriminated against because they are “older” adults. There are limited situations in the U.S. where the state can intervene….one example is if a person suffers from a mental illness where a judge declares him/her “incompetent”…..unable to mentally make decisions to provide adequate care for his/herself. Or if the person has a cognitive disorder, like Alzheimer’s disease, and they don’t have any family who are legally able to make decisions for him/her…..and the individual is not able to meet his/her own needs.